Sona Jobarteh is not only a kora virtuoso, she is also one of the rare women from a family of griots to whom this art has been transmitted. She’s back in Montreal this Friday after a popular and memorable concert during the last Nuits d’Afrique International Festival.
Singer and composer Sona Jobarteh will return to the Montreal stage on March 8, International Women’s Day. It is only a coincidence due to her very busy touring schedule, but it still has symbolic value since the Gambian musician is a pioneer in her field: she is considered the first professional player of the kora, a historically reserved for men.
Although she is aware of the difference she represents, Sona Jobarteh is not proud of this title. “Every day is Women’s Day for me,” she says. Each of her gestures aims to normalize things, she adds, whether it is equality between genders, between people of diverse origins or even access to education.
These things that, in my opinion, must change, we must not dedicate ourselves to them just once in a while.
Sona Jobarteh, artist
“I expect this to happen every day. I’m working on it in the hope that we will succeed [à cette égalité] one day and we no longer need to make an issue of it. »
A revelation
Sona Jobarteh is one of the African revelations of recent years. His second album, Badinyaa Kumoo, published in the fall of 2022, earned him a Songlines prize awarded to the best record from Africa and the Middle East in the spring of 2023. This honor is well deserved. His album indeed puts forward a skillful weaving between the West African tradition and a jazzy approach, where the sparkling melodies groove and the percussion dances eloquently.
Her bicultural background is no stranger to her way of approaching music: the musician and composer spent a large part of her life between the country of her mother, Great Britain, and that of her father, Gambia. She was also trained in Western classical music before understanding, in her late teens, that she could only find her voice by learning to master the instrument that called to her the most, the kora, which It can be described as a hybrid between the lute and the harp.
Extract of Gambiaby Sona Jobarteh
This choice was not obvious: in the families of griots, the caste depository of the oral and musical tradition in Mandinka culture, the women sing, but do not play a musical instrument. Her father, however, agreed to train her, encouraging her to find her own sound and path. Sona Jobarteh firmly believes that traditions must evolve to survive.
Thus, she sees herself less as a role model of a woman who breaks molds and more as a person who follows in the footsteps of those who came before her and who, in turn, shows the way for those who will come after her. Who will also expand it in their own way. Sona Jobarteh really believes in transmission.
A double life
She also leads a double life: in addition to her flourishing international musical career, she founded a school where culture (music and dance, in particular) is part of the school curriculum. Even more, it is working to develop an educational program free from that inherited from the colonial system which could spread throughout the African continent.
“We have just launched the final version of our literacy program,” emphasizes the musician, while admitting that continuing to run her school while she is on tour is a challenge.
She is also considering slowing down the concerts to be able to spend more time “on the ground” in Gambia.
Knowing that she let 11 years pass between her first and second album, it is not impossible to believe that once her current tour is over, Sona Jobarteh will be rare in the years to come. All the more reason to go hear her at the National where she will perform with her group in which, these days, we find her son Sidiki.
“It’s very good to have him with me,” she rejoices. It allows me to pass on to him not only the music, but also what it takes to tour, the work ethic and the philosophy behind what we do. »
In concert Friday, 8:30 p.m., at the National
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